Dolan, Murdoch Eye ‘Newsday’: Reports
Cablevision Declines Comment About Acquisition Interest In Long Island Newspaper
-- Multichannel News, 3/21/2008 11:00:00 AM
Cablevision Systems Corp. CEO James Dolan, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and real estate investor and New York Daily News publisher Mortimer Zuckerman are among the parties interested in purchasing, Tribune Co.’s Long Island newspaper, according to a number of reports.
Dolan, Murdoch and Zuckerman are said to be engaged in the sales process, according to the accounts.
Dolan is said to be considering an outright purchase of the newspaper, which has a weekday circulation of 387,000 the 10th highest in the nation. The newspaper serves customers on Cablevision’s home turf on Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and many affluent suburbs of New York City.
Cablevision declined comment.
Both Murdoch and Zuckerman are reportedly considering joint ventures with Newsday. Murdoch owns the New York Post, which has 667,000 average weekday subscribers to rank sixth in the nation. Zuckerman’s The Daily News is fifth with 681,000.
Tribune went private last year via an $8.2 billion buyout by Chicago real-estate magnate Sam Zell. The company reported a $78.8 million loss in the fourth quarter, reversing profits of $239 million in the year-earlier period. For all of 2007, Tribune recorded profits of just under $87 million, compared with $594 million in 2006.
